A flagship STK steakhouse planned for the corner of Union Square Park is now stuck in a New York courtroom, after its landlord demanded overdue September rent and the restaurant chain's parent company fired back with an emergency court filing. At the center of the fight is a 13,000-square-foot ground-floor space at 200 Park Avenue South, where The ONE Group, STK's parent, signed a 10-year lease in January 2025 but has yet to open its doors.
According to Bisnow, landlord ABS Partners Real Estate issued The ONE Group a notice demanding its September rent payment, which totaled $109,375 with a late fee, and gave the company until Wednesday to pay or risk losing the lease entirely. ABS extended that deadline by one day, but The ONE Group's attorneys moved first, filing for an injunction and temporary restraining order in New York County Supreme Court to block ABS from terminating the lease while the underlying dispute plays out.
That kind of emergency filing is known in New York real estate law as a Yellowstone injunction, a legal maneuver that traces back to the 1968 case National Stores, Inc. v. Yellowstone Shopping Center, 21 N.Y.2d 630 and allows commercial tenants facing termination notices to freeze the clock on a cure period while a state court sorts out an alleged default, according to the Lasser Law Group. New York courts routinely grant such injunctions to keep a tenant's lease alive pending judicial resolution, per the same source.
Whose Fault Is the Debris?
The dispute hinges on when STK actually took possession of the space, and therefore when rent obligations kicked in. STK's side argues the unit was used for storage until August, with hundreds of pounds of debris, construction tools, and building materials left behind, and attorney Dov Treiman contended the clutter blocked real access to the space until mid-August 2026, Bisnow reported. Christi Hing, representing the tenant side, said nothing could be done with the space until the stored material was cleared out.
Court filings included photos showing a white-boxed interior cluttered with ladders, work benches, and miscellaneous items, though the report notes those items were removed after the photos were taken. Under the lease terms, rent is delayed for 300 days after the tenant takes over the space, which the tenant's team says pushes the first payment obligation to June 2027 rather than this month.
ABS Partners tells a different story. Attorney Alex Estis said STK has had the keys since a walk-through in September 2025 and that the tenant already paid rent for July and August 2026 before balking at September's bill. Estis said nothing currently impedes the space and that no one else is using it, framing the tenant's rent payments as evidence occupancy had already begun.
Accusations of Courtroom Gamesmanship
The legal sparring has gotten personal. Estis argued that The ONE Group's attorneys failed to give ABS proper advance notice before seeking an emergency injunction, and he alleged the tenant's legal team prepared its filings during the Jewish High Holidays before delivering full materials a day after the complaint was filed. Estis called the plaintiff's tactics gamesmanship, according to the same report.
ABS representative Gregg Schenker said the landlord has dealt with commercial tenants before who tried to avoid paying rent, a comment that underscores just how contentious the standoff over the corner unit has become. The lawsuit itself claims the debris dispute is what delayed STK's opening in the first place, a version of events ABS disputes.
A Landmark Building at a Booming Corner
The space in question sits inside the Everett Building, a 16-story structure at 200 Park Avenue South designed by Starrett & van Vleck that opened in 1908 and was designated an official New York City landmark in September 1988, according to Wikipedia. The corner retail unit was occupied by menswear retailer Rothman's, which planned to move, per the Commercial Observer.
The building sits at the corner of East 17th Street, adjacent to the 14th Street–Union Square transit hub, an area that sees more than 375,000 daily visitors and 63,000 daily subway riders, according to the Union Square Partnership. That kind of foot traffic has made the corner a magnet for major retail and restaurant deals, and the Union Square Partnership reports storefront occupancy in the area surged to 82% in the first quarter of 2025, up from 68% just months earlier, fueled in part by leases like STK's and the arrival of interactive arcade Activate Games.
Part of a Bigger Expansion Push
STK's Union Square lease covers roughly 13,000 square feet.
The ONE Group has been on a growth tear since acquiring Safflower Holdings Corp., which owned Benihana, in a $365 million deal that expanded its global portfolio to 168 locations.
Whether any of that momentum carries the Union Square location to opening day now depends on a New York Supreme Court judge. For now, the corner space across from Union Square Park remains empty, its fate tied up in a dispute over back rent, packed-away debris, and dueling legal claims that neither side has backed away from.
